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England vs Argentina, Women’s World Cup 2019: Phill Neville says men’s rivalry not relevant to Lionesses
Phil Neville has no plans to speak to his players about the England men’s footballing rivalry with Argentina, with the two nations meeting at the Women’s World Cup in Le Havre on Friday night.
The Lionesses will hope to secure back-to-back victories over one of the tournament’s lowest-ranked sides, and victory would all but see the Group D hopefuls through to the knock-out stages with one game remaining.
A match-up between England and Argentina at a World Cup will evoke memories of men’s matches at the 1986, 1998 and 2002 tournaments, which fuelled a healthy sporting rivalry between the two nations.
England’s women, meanwhile, beat Argentina 6-1 at the 2007 Women’s World Cup. Midfielder Jill Scott scored their second goal that day and, along with Karen Carney, is one of two surviving members from that squad.
And while Scott and Carney’s experiences may come in handy, Neville does not intend to draw on the men’s history before this meeting in Le Havre, as he feels it bears little relevance to the stories of the women’s sides.
“We haven’t made reference to the men’s history of this fixture,” he said. “There isn’t the history and rivalry on the women’s side so it would be silly for me to talk about the Michael Owen goal, the Beckham sending-off and the Hand of God goal. It doesn’t make reference to a rivalry on our side. This is a game we haven’t played that often.”
Women’s football in Argentina is relatively underfunded and underdeveloped when compared to men’s. In 2017, the national team players went on strike citing the Argentine Football Association’s failure to cover basic resources, such as expenses.
Even so, Carlos Borrello’s side earned their first-ever point at a World Cup finals this week by holding 2011 champions Japan to a surprise draw, and Neville knows England cannot write their opponents off.
“The only thing I would say yesterday, today and tomorrow is this is a great footballing nation we’re playing, a proud footballing nation,” he told journalists at his pre-match press conference on Thursday.
“When you come up against a real big power in terms of football nation, you’re playing against a team with great history. There are parallels with both men’s and women’s football.
“You look at Brazil now playing with Australia, there’s a similarity. There’s a style, a never say die attitude and that’s what this Argentina side have got. When you say about street footballers, this is what this Argentina side has got which is similar to what most South American teams play with.”
Neville added: “When the draw was made, the Scotland and Argentina games are games where we’ve got to handle the occasion as well as the game, handle the emotion and the rivalry. This is another game where we’ll have to handle that kind of emotion.”
England will be unable to call upon Toni Duggan in Le Havre. The Barcelona forward missed Sunday’s 2-1 win over Scotland with a minor thigh injury and is yet to fully recover, but should play a part in the final group game against Japan.
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